[telfish]

Looks like is a holding situation as far as Pentax USA is concerned


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Monique F: Thank you for contacting Pentax Chat Support. How may I help you?

Terry " ": I Was talking with Edward and got booted, any way to retrieve that conversation

Monique F: No , i'm sorry.

Terry " ": Ok let me start again. I am on my third K5 camera. All three have had sensor stains above the sensor and trapped by the cover glass. How can I get a camera without this manufacturing defect?

Monique F: I'm sorry to hear of this trouble, In order to better assist you I will need to send your information to our corporate office. May I please have your mailing address, serial number to the camera & telephone number?

Monique F: The serial number is located on the bottom of the camera.

Terry " ": Ok the latest one is on it's way back to the retailer for another try. The serial number was 3823822

Terry " ": The first one was 3823991

Terry " ": I have asked for a late serial number next time but do not hold out hope as according to other users all serial numbers batches are affected. My wife's camera serial number 3865797 is mildly affected and she can live with it , though she should not have too.

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You have been connected to Randall S.

Terry " ": My mailing address is Telephone number Number is

Randall S: okay, thank you

Randall S: we will escalate this information to our corporate office and product developers.

Terry " ": can you see the previous chat items? This is the second time I have been booted!!

Randall S: yes, i see that. not sure what the problem was there.

Randall S: it appears you have returned the last camera to the dealer for another exchange

Terry " ": Pentax Europe is doing direct exchanges with known good cameras. There are many faulty ones in the supply chain. So retailers are doing multiple exchanges and customers are getting angry.

Randall S: at this time we are advising you to return the camera to the dealer for either exchange and refund.

Randall S: or refund.

Terry " ": How many times do you expect me to do that and pay the shipping costs on a $1700 camera?

Terry " ": I have $9000 invested in Pentax Lenses I can't just abandon ship.
Randall S: In your place I believe I would ask for a refund and either go to another dealer or wait until the issue is resolved by Pentax Japan.

Terry " ": And how long do you expect Pentax Japan to take to resolve this situation? And why not do a replace as Pentax Europe is doing.

Terry " ": And why should another dealer have any better chance of sending me a perfect camera?

Randall S: We don't know what Pentax Japan is planning to do but they are aware of the issue.

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Terry " ": What happens if I hold on to a faulty camera and stop the roulette' will you undertake to replace at a later time or will I be pushed into sending it to Arizona for a 2 month wait?

Randall S: Since this problem is evidently not happening in every K-5 but all the cameras you've gotten from this dealer have had it, it's possible another dealer's cameras might be okay.

Terry " ": I have already tried two dealers, and according to the poll on Pentax forums about 60% have this issue.

Randall S: if you hold on to a camera with a defect it would still be covered under warranty for one year from the date of purchase. You would of course still have to return the camera to our service center to be examined for either repair or replacement and turnaround time on warranty service usually runs about 3-4 weeks.

Terry " ": Do you have known good parts (sensor assemblies) to do replacements at this time?

Randall S: we are just hearing about the issue in the last week and do not have replacement assemblies earmarked for this purpose at this time.

Terry " ": You have taken my details to send to corporate, when can I expect to hear from them and to what end?

Randall S: The fix for this problem will be forthcoming from Pentax Japan. Until the, we can only recommend sending the camera back to the dealer or in to our service center for an examination.

Terry " ": Ok, thanks for trying

Randall S: We've been asked to forward this information to the corporate office to document the problem. I do not know what sort of response you can expect or when it would come.

Terry " ": However if you have no parts to replace sensors sending it to Arizona is futile.

Randall S: The service department would either have the part in stock, be expecting it or order it directly from the manufacturer.

Randall S: with a new release camera model, replacement parts are not always in stock immediately.

Terry " ": Ok it looks like I need to go with a refund and wait it out until Pentax has it's act together.

Randall S: I can certainly understand if that's what you decide to do.

Terry " ": OK thanks Randall. Bye

Randall S: Thank you for dropping by, Terry, and have a great day!

[Parallax]

Well, I about fell out of my chair when I came to the part where they admitted there was an issue.
I thought Line one, Page one of every Customer Service Rep manual was "Repeat the phrase 'Gee, I've never heard of that problem before'."

[telfish]

Well, I about fell out of my chair when I came to the part where they admitted there was an issue.
I thought Line one, Page one of every Customer Service Rep manual was "Repeat the phrase 'Gee, I've never heard of that problem before'."

I like the bit where I ask if there are any replacement parts available, he says no but then asks me to send a brand new out of the box camera away for repair!

I can't fault the guy, they must be under a lot of pressure.

[Urkeldaedalus]

I think this and other examples show that Pentax Japan needs to improve its communication with its other branches. From what I've seen, I think the Pentax representatives and dealers worldwide have been doing a good job of responding to this problem given the lack of leadership at the top.

[planedriver]

...and when I started a thread "https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-5-forum/125144-pentax-you-listening.html" some forum member(s) with very high number of posts and therefore with some "special privileges"(don't take this seriously) openly called my thread annoying..

my goal was simple: these kind of conversations (on the phone) and any warranty issues shall be done in the most simplest way..e.g. Pentax USA or whatever shall has the right answer right from the first question (because Pentax HQ has send them a Service Letter or whatever). Now Pentax Europe promised us replacement..hope it works..

..and hope that this issue will be solved everywhere in a way that all of us involved will be happy Pentax shooters again..

Andras

[Parallax]

...and when I started a thread "https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-5-forum/125144-pentax-you-listening.html" some forum member(s) with very high number of posts and therefore with some "special privileges"(don't take this seriously) openly called my thread annoying

..Andras

Yes, we have a few who have an extraordinarily high opinion of the value of their opinion.

(er..... Ignore my sig line on this one! )

[nanok]

parallax: i disagree. in some cases, it is stupid and damaging to deny knowing about the problem: when so many people know and complain, you look like you simly don't give a shit. this is why soem manufacturers even have field bulletins, recommend quick fixes/workarounds, etc. a known issue is a known issue...

overall this looks good. there's definitely a lot of confusion going on, and they seem to be doing their best to work things out. for me, the outright statement that pentax jp knows about it and are working on "something" is a good sign.

europe: for what it's worth, in eu the law states that a third repeat of the same issue means money back, no questions asked. this will motivate most dealers to do their best to help their customers keep the products they buy (which is good). pentax needs to help out too, though.

[Parallax]

parallax: i disagree. in some cases, it is stupid and damaging to deny knowing about the problem: when so many people know and complain, you look like you simly don't give a shit. this is why soem manufacturers even have field bulletins, recommend quick fixes/workarounds, etc. a known issue is a known issue...

..............

That was my point, actually. I forgot my :drip: sign.

[nanok]

ah. okay

[elho_cid]

I was at Pentax service personally today, handing them over my K-5 with scratched sensor cover. They implied that some sort of official internal communication note reached them recently, instructing them to replace the affected cameras ASAP with good ones.
The local customer protection law gives them 30 day period to fix the problem or provide replacement (or money back) but I was promised that it will be quicker than that.
Maybe they are shipping the clean replacement cameras to Europe with higher priority because the local laws for customer protection are more threatning to them? Or they value the European customers more? I hope not, that wouldn't be fair.
Anyway my sympathy with american Pentaxians in that case...

[Stringmike]

They do not respond to issues the same way we do in the west. Customer satisfaction may not be as important to them as maintaining face. Shipping defective products reflects on their honor and for us to point this out may not be seen as good manners.

They also may only just have heard about it in the last week or so and have no way to estimate the likely magnitude of the problem.

You can be sure that Pentax USA is on their case, but they too have to tiptoe around the corporate culture!

The bottom line is that, no matter how angry we are about this, being confrontational with Pentax is unlikely to be helpful in getting a resolution.

Mike

[qtopplings]

I'm sad for all of you that have to deal with this crap, but in a way this could be a good thing.

Now I definitely am going to wait a few months till this issue is resolved, so no camera envy for me!
And, this could lead to a price drop or at the very least a flood of refurbished cameras at cheaper prices.

Pentax should recall all stock and test each camera for this issue. That is the right thing to do.

[NaClH2O]

They do not respond to issues the same way we do in the west. Customer satisfaction may not be as important to them as maintaining face. Shipping defective products reflects on their honor and for us to point this out may not be seen as good manners.

They also may only just have heard about it in the last week or so and have no way to estimate the likely magnitude of the problem.

You can be sure that Pentax USA is on their case, but they too have to tiptoe around the corporate culture!

The bottom line is that, no matter how angry we are about this, being confrontational with Pentax is unlikely to be helpful in getting a resolution.

Mike

It would be way out of character to get a "mea culpa" out of Pentax (or any Japanese Corp for that matter). That said that DOES NOT MEAN they don't care about their customers, they surely do. However a public declaration of fault might not happen. I am very heartened by the quick action of Pentax Europe, and believe it or not, I'm heartened by the transcription above. They know there is a problem, they have admitted to communication of said problem, and as far as I know no one has had any problem returning a camera (getting a fault free new one may be a different story) but at least as far as standard Japanese corporate policy is concerned, they are being completely transparent. It may take a little while for a completely satisfactory solution to be implemented but at this point anyway things are looking much better than they did on Tuesday.

NaCl(Japanese corp culture is wayyyy different from western corp culture)H2O

[glanglois]

They do not respond to issues the same way we do in the west. Customer satisfaction may not be as important to them as maintaining face. Shipping defective products reflects on their honor and for us to point this out may not be seen as good manners.

They also may only just have heard about it in the last week or so and have no way to estimate the likely magnitude of the problem.

You can be sure that Pentax USA is on their case, but they too have to tiptoe around the corporate culture!

The bottom line is that, no matter how angry we are about this, being confrontational with Pentax is unlikely to be helpful in getting a resolution.

Mike

+1.

Good advice - confrontation needs to be used sparingly in carefully-assessed circumstance. In the US, at least. In other cultures, particularly Japan's, its use is generally somewhere between counterproductive and catastrophic.

As veteran seller and buyer of high-value "stuff" (meaning two commas in USD) as well as significant exposure to consumer retail, I'll vouch for Mike's view.

[planedriver]

Yes, we have a few who have an extraordinarily high opinion of the value of their opinion.

...actually all of us are watching this "stain-issue theater" from the first row..and the "actors" have no choice this time..it's like either the crowd likes the performance or most of them will go to another theatre called CaNi..

not me..or?

Andras